Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 John · About this commentary
Walking in Truth, Loving from the Beginning
2 John 1:4-6
4 I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we have been commanded by the Father. · WEB
The letter asks for nothing new — only that love keep walking the road the commandment laid down from the beginning.
The body opens with honest joy. The elder has found some of the lady's children walking in truth — the Greek is partitive, claiming no more than he found. The praise is measured; flattery would sit badly in this letter.
The request that follows is deliberately unoriginal. Not a new commandment — entolē G1785 — but the one held from the beginning: that we love one another. The first epistle knows the same paradox, an old commandment that is also new 1 John 2:7–8, and behind both letters stands the Lord's own new commandment, given on the night he was betrayed John 13:34. From the beginning means from the church's own beginning — the oldest command Christians possess.
Verse 6 then closes a circle on purpose. Love is walking according to his commandments; the commandment is that we walk in love. Neither half stands alone — the one who loves him keeps his word John 14:23, and keeping the commandments is what the first epistle calls the love of God 1 John 5:3. Sentiment that will not obey is not yet love; obedience without love has missed the commandment it set out to keep. The circle is the letter's defense against having one without the other.
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